Despite having now seen The Herd and Nightwish twice each now, I'm not much of a gig-goer. But with another gig coming up in August, I feel as if I am.

Whilst checking details for The Herd on Friday, I checked Laura Marling's website on a whim, wondering if she'd ever tour here. What timing: she's coming out for Splendour In The Grass and playing in Sydney and Melbourne before hopping straight back to the UK for more gigs.

I take it the Corner is a larger venue than the Northcote Social Club? In any case, the gig has been moved to the Corner Hotel, and I snapped up a ticket. Good thing, too: on RRR this morning, Fee said the show was already sold out... Now just to learn from Friday and a) turn up later, and b) drive there, as it's on a Nightrider-less Wednesday.

Awake again now after a late night: saw The Herd at The Hi-Fi Bar. Great night, with a good mix of old favourites and new material from Summerland. Pleased that Under Pressure was in there. The crowd lapped up I Was Only 19, getting all patriotic like, and naturally The King Is Dead and 2020 went off. Finished up with the very early Scallops, which I don't have, but recall from a bit of airplay.

I knew there was a pillow in her way (you see), but why would anyone - regardless of accent - pronounce "closer" as "close air"?

"His lust is so sincere."

"I'll keep on going I've got nothing to lose;
I gave up morals when I took up you.
And it's boring to hear of another young truth,
And what a typically shit thing to do..."
- Typical by Laura Marling

Thanks to Trayce for posting about the Ghosts album(s) from Nine Inch Nails. With my iPod dead, I haven't listened to it much yet, but being instrumental, it's good stuff to have on while working.

So far, "15 Ghosts II" is a track that sticks with me. There seems to be a story behind that one, but I can't describe exactly what. Is that meant to be a baby in the background? A squeeky gate or mechanism of some kind? It reminds me - ever so vaguely - of something from Tom Waits' What's He Building?.

It took till 9pm to get the kids to bed, largely because there was so much to talk about...
( stuff wot we done )
Young Jesara Cosette

Theresa has been teaching Jesara the part of Young Cosette from Les Misérables and oh my is she loving it. Half the night was spent with Jesara talking about it and asking questions about the story and when she'll get to audition and who the director will be and what her costume will be and whether she'll be scrubbing floors and and and...

We listened to Castle On A Cloud thrice, Mon Prince Est En Chemin twice, plus various other songs. Twice I explained the story of Cosette living with the Thenardiers and Fontine sending Valjean to look after her.

Then she asked again about the boy who died.

You know - the one on the coin...

Oh, you mean Weary Dunlop? He was a man, not a boy. Why did he die? Because he was old, I think. Everyone dies eventually, Jesara! More explanation about war, soldiers, doctors, languages, etc. This unschooling thing seems to be working.

Save for more Les Mis excitement and requests for food from Jesara, bedtime ended with the discovery that Josh was wearing knickers, so taking him to the toilet (successfully) and putting him in bed without trouble. :-)

What sort of stupid record company releases only one of two soundtracks?

Warner Music Australia are distributing the soundtrack to Sweeney Todd (Tim Burton film version). Or are they? What is on offer in Australia is actually the "Highlights" version, not the Deluxe version.

More to the point, what sort of film company would promote a film without making sure that both versions are available at the time the film is released?

Idiots.

And of course, I can't download the album, because Amazon MP3 is not yet available in Australia and other stores only have DRM-crippled copies.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Time to import, it seems. But that sorta detracts from the imulse buy experience. How many sales are lost because the product's not available when the customer wants it?

I've found another song for my "Touching" playlist. That's the one for songs that move me for whatever reason.

Angles by Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip. [1]

Things in life ain't always quite what they seem, there's more than one
given angle to any one given scene. So bare that in mind next time you try
to intervene on any one given angle, on any one given scene.

( read the rest of the lyrics... )

Mark must've been feeling pretty guilty for leaving home. And I'd imagine their Dad is feeling sorry now, too.

Such a sad little tragedy. And a good message in the chorus. I love it when artists work story into their lyrics.

This was a chance find, too. It came in a bundle when I bought their single Thou Shalt Always Kill - the suddenly-popular semi-novelty track that dishes out modern-day commandments.

[1] What's with "vs." in the name of hip-hop acts? (Not that I'd really call them a hip-hop act - more like a spoken word poet with a DJ raised on 80s synthesised electro-pop, or whatever it is.) To me, "vs." implies a battle, not a collaboration.

[2] Why is the wordlist on the MacOS spell checker missing "thou" and "shalt"? They're not that archaic...

OMG, it's like Jam & Spoon meets The X-Files, at least about half way through. Definitiely not just the instrumental backing of the main version.

And it occurs to me now that I had only ever heard the last 3 seconds of Follow Me, so this is a somewhat new experience.